In February, the two will release a dark comedy on Netflix starring Lyonne, „Russian Doll.“ Their original show for the peacock network served as inspiration for the eight-episode series right down to the lead character’s name.

„[‚Old Soul‘] was the inception for what was to become ‚Russian Doll,‘ and Nadia, I always call my character Nadia, based on Nadia Comăneci, my favorite gymnast from the ’80s,“ Lyonne told INSIDER while speaking about the new streaming series.

„Old Soul“ would’ve followed Lyonne as a former wild child, Nadia, who cares for the elderly and finds she has more in common with them than anyone her age. Without giving much away, „Russian Doll,“ has a very „Groundhog’s Day“ vibe, starring a young woman, also named Nadia, who finds herself stuck in a loop at a seemingly-endless birthday party.

„I think that when ‚Old Soul‘ sort of didn’t happen, I remember Amy [Poehler] turning to me and saying, ‚Hey, what’s the show that we really, really, want to make? If there were no rules or restrictions or networks around, what’s the thing that we really want to say here?'“ recounted Lyonne about the show’s origins.

While the two shows are nothing alike, the underlying concept about a young woman trying to find herself is the connective tissue between the two. „Russian Doll“ is a deeply personal project, partially inspired by Lyonne’s real life.

„The idea was that we were going to essentially do different levels of a woman’s experience until you got to, essentially what we would call between the three of us, Amy, Natasha, and I, the tiny doll,“ co-creator Leslye Headland told INSIDER. „What is your tiny doll? That is your most vulnerable, the coding within your emotional makeup that has you act particular ways.“

„At the beginning of the show you have this protagonist that is very guarded, shields up, ready to take on the night and make the choices she wants to make,“ she continued, speaking of Lyonne’s main character. „And slowly, little by little… she has to get deeper and deeper into her psyche, into her own self, into her history, and find that tiny doll essentially, and maybe not confront it, but make peace with it, in order to become whole again.“

Headland discussed the idea for „Russian Doll“ with Lyonne and Poehler for about a year and a half before they even pitched the show to Netflix. And when they did, it was with an idea that would last three seasons.

The trio weren’t even completely sure they would be able to use the name „Russian Doll“ for the series. There was a reality show with a similar name titled „Russian Dolls.„

„There was a moment where Universal and Netflix were like, ‚I think you guys may, if we can’t clear this, you may need to come up with something else.‘ So we did do a bunch of brainstorming sessions,“ said Headland.

„Luckily it got canceled,“ Lyonne later told us of the Lifetime reality series that aired for one season. „I think one of the [alternate titles] was ‚The Whole Shebang,‘ and that was similar to [CBS‘] ‚Big Bang Theory.‘ We meant it as a potential double entendre. And I can now see that that was deeply an immature thing and I’m glad we didn’t do it.“

All eight half-hour episodes of „Russian Doll“ will be available to stream on Netflix starting Friday.